Introducing Sven

The past few weeks have been seriously crazy for me. But full details will have to wait until another time. This post is about an addition to the family:

As some may know, my little blue camper van perished last fall, when the engine developed problems. Unfortunately, too expensive to fix. We didn't feel right trying to sell him on to someone else in that condition, so donated the vehicle to www.kidneycar.ca in exchange for a tax-deductible receipt. 

After an exhaustive six-month search, we adopted Sven last weekend. His Swedish-born American owner has just left Whistler bound for Maui (poor guy). No, the man's name wasn't Sven. But the van has been kept clean, maintained and finished inside with incredible care and attention to detail that you'd expect from a Scandinavian. And it smells piney, like the inside of a new sauna!

The vehicle is a 1994 Chev G20, so it was given life the same year we got married, and the year arrived in Canada! Like us, he has low mileage for his years, so should have a few more laps around the sun left.

He's a stealth camper, and for sure still need some work (like actual insulation between the paneling and the body), but is definitely ready for action when my horse show season starts the first weekend of June! Uniquely, he's the only van that we've seen that is a "panel" van on one side, and a "people" van on the other.

Here are some photos (thanks to P for these) to give you an idea:

Sven

Panel Van on One Side

People Van on t'Other

Work Van Up Front

Scandinavian Lodge in the Back

The wooden centre part of the bed can be pulled out towards you, and the mattress folds out to full length for maximum stretch-out comfort. I'm pretty sure that I'll be able leave it as it is, though, and be quite comfortable. That'll leave extra moving-around space in the "entrance hall".

There is plenty of privacy with drop-down curtains on the back 3 windows, and covers complete with magnetic corners for the side door windows. I have a black-out privacy screen for the front 3 windows.

Yes, this van is substantially bigger than the last one! I'm driving it around Squamish as my daily driver for the next couple of weeks, getting used to it before I make the road trip to Maple Ridge for my first equestrian event in June.

Until sometime in the summer, here's wishing you all a wonderful spring!

Hope to see you next time!
Tanya

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